Mike Uhrlaub here with another episode of Power Your Life. This is a really special post and I am super stoked to be here with you. Today, I’m going to show you one of the best ways to fix your back pain. We’ve been talking about the psoas muscle in the past Seven Parts and today we are going to cap it off. I’m actually going to take you step by step through one of the best movements you can do to normalize your psoas and alleviate back pain fast.
Dolly is so full of energy!
Before we get to that, I want to share a recent experience my family had. My daughter was dog sitting for a friend of ours. The dog is a one-year-old French Bulldog named Dolly. We have two dogs at home. Sadie, who is a nine-year-old Maltese Poodle Mix, and Boo, an old Pekinese Poodle Mix who we think is about 11 years. Dolly came into our home and was so full of energy. She was all over the place wanting to check everything out. It was so much fun just watching her. She still has quite a bit of puppy in her and she just had to check things. Went around the house and tried to play with our dogs and my daughter. Dolly is such a loving dog and has so much love to give everyone around her; even Sadie and Boo who didn’t always appreciate it.
Watching Dolly love up on everyone really got me thinking about how simple life really can be. If we all could love everyone around us, just like Dolly did, how much more enjoyable would life be for us? Dolly didn’t want anything in return other than some attention and love from us. I think we often lose sight of this in our day to day lives. We complicate things too much with all of the busyness and noise that distracts us from what we should be focusing on.
Keep things simple.
Cut out all of the unnecessary distractions and make time for others. Just do things out of love for those in our lives; it can lead to a life with less stress and so much more happiness.
One of the best ways to reduce all of the noise in life is start getting rid of all of the things cluttering up your schedule, home, and mind. If you really want to live a life that leads to joy, love, and peace you have to figure out what matters and what doesn’t. Then, eliminate all of the things that really don’t matter so you can focus on the items that do this. This will help you to create space, simplify, and set margins in your life. It will help you be able to focus more on loving those around you.
One off the simplest ways to shut down your overactive psoas muscles is a movement called The Dragon Pose. It is a yoga pose and is extremely effective in shutting down the psoas muscle so it can lengthen and normalize.
The Dragon Pose is an effective movement/stretch you can easily do at home.
What it does is stretch out, lengthen, and normalize your overactive psoas. (Remember the psoas comes off the lumbar spine, goes through the stomach and then attaches to the hips and femur. So, when it gets overactive from us sitting too much, it becomes hard for us to get upright. If the psoas is really tight when we do get upright, it increases the curvature of the spine and jams up the joints in your back. The next thing that happens is it starts to tighten your hip muscles and reciprocal inhibition (shutting down) starts to take place in your gluteal muscle. Once this happens, you can start to develop disappearing butt syndrome, also known as gluteal atrophy.)
The Dragon Pose helps prevent all of that from happening. Before you read further please read this………….
If at any time you’re doing The Dragon Pose and start to feel lightheaded, YOU NEED TO STOP. If it increases your primary back pain by more than two-points YOU NEED TO STOP.
It’s going to be uncomfortable. You’re stretching muscles that haven’t been stretched in quite some time. You’re trying to normalize these imbalances, but that two-point rule, we hold fast and firm here at Flex Physical Therapy. So, if your pain level is normally a five and all of a sudden, you’re a seven, you need to stop the exercise. Shoot us a message and let us know what’s going on. We can talk you through it or bring you into the clinic to find out what is truly going on.
If you are comfortable getting up and down off of the floor follow this method. Otherwise, follow the modifier below.
Suggested Materials: Yoga Mat and Yoga Blocks
Step 1:
Start off by going down on all fours; also known as the table top position.
Step 2:
Bring your right leg up and put it on the outside of your right hand.
Step 3:
Turn your left foot on it’s side.
Step 4:
Take your left leg and slide/walk it backwards.
(Doing this will stretch the hip area as well as start to normalize and lengthen the psoas muscle.)
Step 5:
This step is if you would like to get a little more advanced. If you are uncomfortable doing this now, keep trying steps 1-4 and come back to this step in a couple of weeks.
L
ift your stretched left leg off the ground so your toes are all that is touching. This is the Dragon Pose.
If you are looking for a little more stretch and flexibility, then you can even drop to your elbows.
Or use the yoga blocks for an easier stretching if you can’t get on your elbows but the regular Dragon Pose is too easy.
This picture also gives you a glimpse of what it would look like should you bring your left foot forward and extend your right foot.
Modified Version of The Dragon Pose
Materials: Solid counter or table and a step stool. (Make sure you use a solid surface so it doesn’t move on you. A table and countertop are about the right height.)
Step 1:
Start off by putting your hands on the table and placing your left foot on the step stool.
Step 2:
Drop to your elbows, walk your right foot backwards and carefully drop your hips.
Step 3:
Let your left knee fall out and bring your head up so you are looking forward. Let your muscles stretch out.
Once you find the position that works for you and feel your muscles stretching, hold it, start breathing. In. Out. In. Out. For about 40 seconds. If 40 seconds is too long, you can shorten it. Start out with 20 seconds and build your way up. I would recommend if you do a shorter hold time, then do more repetitions. Maybe do three or four reps on each side. But as you increase that time and get closer to a minute, you can decrease your repetitions.
Do this on both sides once a day.
I apologize for being in my gym close. I did plan ahead however, as you all may know, something happened and I forgot. The other night I was telling my wife, Shauna, about how I was going to shoot a Facebook live video and demonstrate the Dragon Pose. I was beyond excited and set out my gym clothes. I even put them right by the back door so I was all set. I really planned ahead. Guess what I did? I walked right by my gym back and out the door this morning. I drove into work and realized later that morning I didn’t have my sweat pants. So, I’m showing you the Dragon Pose in just my regular work pants, but I could still do it this way. Which means I know that you can too.
That’s the dragon pose. Start using it and you will notice your back is going to feel looser and less painful.
Do you want One-on-One Help?
If you want, one-on-one help fixing your back. We are currently offering a breakthrough exam for only $49. Do this for me. Go to flexptbackfix webpage. You can sign up for a FREE report and a breakthrough exam so we can work one on one with you. It’s only $49. We can figure out what exactly the root cause of your condition is and get you going in the right direction. At the very least, take a look at all the information on this page.
Like always, because you all know I love quotes, I want to leave you with one from former president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.” I think there’s so much truth to that. Let that soak in for a while.
Until next time. Power Your Life and keep moving forward.
